Schneiderman: We’d love more anti-corruption mojo

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman says he’d love to have more authority to pursue public corruption cases, which even in the face of recent scandals, no one is pushing to give him.

“The debate is on now for the next round of reform, and you have to understand that one aspect of that is strengthening our ability to fight corruption, strengthening the ability of prosecutors like my office. The other, though is cleaning up the election system,” Schneiderman, a Democrat, told Susan Arbetter on “The Capitol Pressroom.”

He said the “main check” against corrupt officials are elections, but because of what he considers to be lax campaign finance laws and gerrymandered legilsative districts, “we don’t have many competitive elections, and the proposal Speaker Silver announced would go a pretty long way.”

Arbetter asked Schneiderman if Cuomo’s proposals so far — to create new laws and stiffen criminal penalties, put a gubernatorial appointee in charge of election enforcement and allow for more open primaries — go far enough. In the past, Cuomo has promised to give the attorney general’s office jurisdiction over election matters, but the governor said having his own appointee would be “optimum,” and that Schneiderman should be empowered as a “fallback.”

“There are different proposals on the table now, in addition to whatever else is done, and I do support the bills that were introduced last week … in addition to whatever else is done, our office has proposed a standing referral as we have to investigate Medicaid fraud and auto insurance fraud in the area of public corruption,” Schneiderman replied. “That would add to our jurisdiction. It would give us another tool in the tool kit, and put another cop on the beat.”